This Inconsistently Heinous was Headlined on August 2022.
“
Human... It was nice to meet you. Goodbye.
„
~ Asgore before the battle starts.
“
I remember the day after my son died. The entire underground was devoid of hope. The future had once again been taken from us by the humans. In a fit of anger, I declared war. I said that I would destroy any human that came here. I would use their souls to become godlike... and free us from this terrible prison. Then, I would destroy humanity... And let monsters rule the surface, in peace. Soon, the people's hopes returned. My wife, however, became disgusted with my actions. She left this place, never to be seen again. Truthfully... I do not want power. I do not want to hurt anyone. I just wanted everyone to have hope... But... I cannot take this any longer. I just want to see my wife. I just want to see my child. Please... Young one... This war has gone on long enough. You have the power... Take my soul, and leave this cursed place...
„
~ Asgore expressing remorse for his actions once defeated.
King Asgore Dreemurr, stylized throughout the game as ASGORE, is the secondary antagonist of the 2015 indie RPG game Undertale.
While he is build up throughout the game as the main antagonist, when confronted, he reveals himself to be a kind and cheerful, yet sorrowful and regretful king who feels that he can no longer betray his promise to his people. Unlike the true main antagonist, Flowey, Asgore is an anti-villain, though while he is plagued with guilt and regret, he is still the main obstacle, ordering the Royal Guard to capture humans like Frisk and in the end fighting the protagonist himself.
After the death of hischildren, he proclaimed that every human that falls to the Underground will be murdered. Then, when he claims seven victims, he would use their SOULs to destroy the Barrier, become a god, and exterminate humanity, letting monsters live on the surface in peace. While he does regret it and doesn't truly want to kill anybody, he would still do it if he won the battle with Frisk.
He killed the six humans that fell to the Underground with his own hands. It was heavily implied most, if not all of them were children.
When Frisk confronts him in his castle, he tries to kill them, and forces Frisk to fight him by destroying the MERCY button.
He's responsible for pretty much every single enemy in the game. Undyne is even more misanthropic than Asgore, but has that mindset because of him, while Mettaton does what he does because he doesn't want Asgore to destroy humanity. He's even indirectly responsible for the Amalgamates as he ordered Alphys to experiment on SOULs.
It is true that a few villains arguably outheinous Asgore. However, each of those claims have good counterarguments:
Frisk and Chara can successfully commit genocide on monsterkind if the player so desires and Asgore isn't even aware his people are dying. That said, Frisk/Chara have much higher resources than Asgore has because humans are much stronger than monsters ever were, not to mention their powers to SAVE, LOAD and RESET mean they have total control of the timeline.
Flowey also seeks the human SOULs and unlike Asgore, he doesn't waste his time by stalling and has much bigger goals than Asgore has, being omnicidal. However, Asgore does what he does out of pragmatism: he's stalling for as long as possible to avoid hurting people and to save innocent lives and the reason why he's genocidal and not omnicidal is because he still needs a world to rule over once humanity is destroyed. It's also worth to note that Flowey, like Frisk/Chara, had the ability to SAVE, LOAD and RESET, so he also has higher resources.
In comparison, besides being the king of monsterkind, Asgore is nothing more than a pretty strong boss monster. And in comparison to Undyne, he's not even the strongest one.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
He has a tragic backstory. Once his two children died in the span of one night, one of them at the hands of the humans, he expressed his desire to destroy humanity, become a god, and free monsterkind in a fit of violence anger. This caused his wife, Toriel, to abandon him and the kingdom, disgusted at his actions. Once he finally calmed down and realized he doesn't want to hurt anybody, it was too late as his people were full of hope for a new future. By the time you meet him, he's depressed and deeply remorseful of what he's done and even kills himself in one ending to give Frisk a chance to escape the Underground.
He deeply loved his wife, Toriel, and his children, Asriel and Chara, and was broken when the former left him, and the latter died. He also cares for his people and has many genuine friends, including Undyne, Gerson, and Alphys. In the alarm clock dialogue, he even has dialogue which implies romantic feelings for his dead friend, Rudolph.
He's insecure as he has self-esteem issues (calling himself a "pathetic whelp") and wants Toriel to be with him again, or at least become friends.
He is very polite towards Frisk and everyone else. When Frisk first approaches him, he greets them kindly before realizing who he was talking to, admitting he would love to offer them a cup of tea, but cannot due to the circumstances.
He also has a sense of honor, giving Frisk a chance to finish some unfinished business before fighting them and killing himself so that they can leave the Underground.
He's deeply remorseful over murdering six humans, which drives him into depression and outright suicide in one ending.
He redeems himself in the True Pacifist Route when the Barrier is broken, and monsters peacefully coexist with humans.
He's a scapegoat due to his many redeeming qualities, yet still getting to live in only one ending.
Asgore is also a villain by proxy as he doesn't even want power or death but simply feels like he has no other choice and that doing anything but killing humanity would be betraying his people, who are now hopeful for a better future.
He pretty much becomes a butt monkey in the True Pacifist Ending, as the subject of him being Toriel's ex-husband briefly becomes the subject of jokes in between interactions of the main characters. He also began weeping tears as soon as he saw her and Sans getting along.
Trivia[]
Asgore doesn't count as IH in Deltarune as he's not even a villain, at least not yet, in that game.
Ironically the timeline for Asgore where he was at his least heinous, is the Genocide Route, where he doesn't attempt to kill the main character, but in the other routes, he does, and Undertale's worst ending went along with his point on why he kills humans to begin with.
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Inconsistently Heinous
